॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Sunday, 4 December 2022 V.08 - Bharata develops an obsessive attachment to a young deer and suffers the consequences.
***
Moha or delusion comes from excessive attachment to "I" and "Mine." This can happen to even a good samaritan devoted to the welfare of someone. This is the story of how Bharata faltered in his spiritual progress.
Swami Vivekananda told his monks, आत्मनो मोक्षार्थं जगद्धिताय च - "service comes only after you are established on the path to liberation". The underlying idea is that one need not fuss about the world and become attached or bogged down because the same Lord who is showing you the way to liberation is also actively caring for all creation. If you can do any good as a Swadharma and offer it without attachment or ego to the Lord as your worship, only then are you safe.
***
One day, Bharata sat on the bank of Gandaki after his ritual of bathing thrice, meditation and prayer. Just then a female deer came there to drink water. Suddenly there was a roar of a lion that alarmed the deer who was already very timid. There were no other deer around. The deer leapt to save herself, and in the process, the baby deer in her womb was delivered in a traumatic exertion. In the process of leaping and delivering, the female deer could not manage to land to safety and succumbed to the fall and died.
Rajarshi Bharata had instant concern for the newborn fawn. He picked up the fawn and went to his ashrama.
तस्य ह वा एणकुणक उच्चैरेतस्मिन् कृतनिजाभिमानस्याहरहस्तत्पोषणपालनलालनप्रीणनानुध्यानेनात्मनियमा: सहयमा: पुरुषपरिचर्यादय एकैकश: कतिपयेनाहर्गणेन वियुज्यमाना: किल सर्व एवोदवसन् ॥
T: Bharata became very concerned for the young deer's safety and well-being. He spent all his time feeding him, cleaning him, playing with him, fondling him, and so on. Within a few days, he stopped all his meditation, ritual, prayer and other disciplines, completely forgetting what for he had come to the forest.
मया मत्परायणस्य पोषणपालनप्रीणनलालनमनसूयुनानुष्ठेयं शरण्योपेक्षादोषविदुषा ॥
T: "I am everything to this deer. When he is completely helpless without my care, it is my bounden duty and singular priority to nurture, feed, raise and protect this deer. Wise men say that not caring for one who has come in surrender is a sin."
"One may be an ascetic, but compassion is foremost. So he should certainly neglect his own personal interests, although they may be very important, to protect one who has surrendered to him."
Bharata, bound to the deer in affection, always took the deer along wherever he went, to collect kusha grass, flowers, leaves, fruits and roots and while fetching water. Either he carried the deer, or placed it in his lap or on his chest always.
Bharata could not engage in ceremonies or prayer as he would constantly fuss about the deer and interrupt whatever he may be doing to be with the deer. If he lost sight of the deer, he felt like a miser who is missing his bag of gold.
"I cannot be selfish and cruel. I shall care for the deer always. Alas, is it possible that I shall again see this animal protected by the Lord and live a life fearless of tigers and other animals? Shall I again see him wandering in the wood on his own, eating soft grass?"
"Alas, the small deer, while playing with me and seeing me feigning meditation with closed eyes, circles round me in anger arising from love, and he fearfully touches me with the points of his soft horns, which feel like drops of water!"
"If I scold the deer for touching sacred ritualistic materials, he becomes scared, sits down motionless, exactly like the son of a saintly person!"
"Oh unfortunate Bharata, your austerities and penances are nothing compared to this earth, whose Punya has made the deer walk and mark her with his hooves!"
"Look, I see the moon, he has given shelter, too, to this deer out of kindness!" (The moon is called Mriganka as one can imagine the image of a deer in his craters)
Totally disoriented in his infatuation, Bharata was blabbering to himself about the deer.
Just then Death struck as Bharata's time was up. Bharata was hugging the deer, thinking only of the deer, and so it was natural that after he died, Bharata took birth again, this time as a deer.
However, there was one advantage. Although he lost his human body and received the body of a deer, Bharata could recall the incidents of his past life and understand why he had become a deer in this birth. This now filled him with utter remorse. Alas, he had frittered away his human birth after doing so much austerity!
By constant repentance, he became completely detached from all material things. He left his mother deer back where he was born. He again went to the forest of Salagrama next to Gandaki and to the ashrama of Pulastya and Pulaha.
He was not exactly alone, for he had the company of the Paramatma. In this way, he waited for death in the body of a deer. Bathing in that holy place, he finally gave up that body.
***
॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
